Psychopharmacology (251035)

Learning Outcomes

Understand the general principles underlying the use of psychotropic medication to treat mental health disorders and psychiatric conditions; Learn to recognize the therapeutic profile of the main psychopharmacologic groups (therapeutic indications and mechanisms of action);
Critically approaching to the role of psychotropic drugs in therapeutic intervention in mental health and psychiatry, from the perspective of the psychologist and psychotherapist.

Study Program

I. Basic concepts of psychopharmacology:
1.    Importance of the integration of pharmacology and psychotherapy in the
2.    context of psychological disorders;
3.    Pharmacokinetics concepts: absorption, distribution and eliminations of
4.    drugs;
5.    Pharmacodynamics concept: mechanism os action of drugs;
6.    Main groups of psychotropic substances: anxiolytics, antidepressants,
7.    antipsychotics and mood stabilizers.

II. Introduction to the contexts of psychological intervention.Treatment of
the most important psychiatric conditions:
1.    Diagnostic considerations and preliminary clinical delimitation of the main diagnostic entities
2.    Anxiety disorders: Generalized anxiety, phobic anxiety and panic disorder: differential diagnosis and clinical and therapeutic implications; psychopharmacological therapeutic strategies to approach the treatment of each anxiety disorder: clinical examples; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): differential diagnosis and clinical implications; OCD treatment: clinical examples
3.    Affective disorders: Clinical depression and transient depressive reaction: differential diagnosis and clinical and therapeutic implications; The rationale of psychopharmacological and combined approaches to the treatment of depressive disorders: clinical examples; Bipolar disease: differential diagnosis and clinical and therapeutic implications; Types of bipolar disease;
Therapeutic strategies: clinical examples
4.    Psychotic disorders: Primary and secondary psychoses: differential diagnosis and its clinical and therapeutic implications; Schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder and schizotypal personality disorder; psychopharmacological therapeutic strategies: clinical examples
5.    Borderline personality disorder: differential diagnosis and its clinical and therapeutic implications; psychopharmacological therapeutic strategies to approach the borderline spectrum disorders treatment: clinical examples
6.    Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); Therapeutic strategies: clinical examples
7.    Substance related disorders and eating disorders: differential diagnosis and its clinical and therapeutic implications; Therapeutic strategies to approach both substance use and addiction and eating disorders treatment: clinical examples.

III. The role of psychotropic medications in the treatment of child and
adolescent psychiatric and mental health disorders
1.    Preliminary diagnostic considerations;
2.    Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): differential diagnosis and its clinical and therapeutic implications; ADHD treatment: clinical examples;
3.    Depression: Differential diagnosis in children and adolescents; Treatment for depressive conditions: clinical examples;
4.    Anxiety disorders: Differential diagnosis in children and adolescents; Treatment for the most common anxiety conditions: clinical examples;
5.    Other mental disorders in childhood and adolescence: Diagnostic criteria; Treatment: clinical examples.

Bibliography

MAIN REFERENCES: 

American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2014). Manual de diagnóstico e estatística das perturbações mentais: DSM-5 (5ª ed.) [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]. American Psychiatric Publishing.
Debattista, C., Schatzberg, A. F. (2016). Manual de Psicofarmacologia clínica conforme o DSM-5 (8ª ed.) [Clinical Psychopharmacology Manual according to DSM-5]. Artmed Editora.
Preston, J., O’Neal, J., Talaga, M. (2010). Handbook of Clinical Psychopharmacology for Therapist (6th ed.). New Harbinger
Stahl, S. (2014). Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications (4th ed.). Cambridge University Press